For three years, the Malagasy State has been planning “ strip the local communities of Nosy Mitsio for the benefit of a major tourism investment project » ? In any case, this is what organizations for the protection of citizens’ rights in land matters denounce. The 2,000 inhabitants of the largest island, this archipelago, located in the northwest of Madagascar, between Nosy Be and Diego, fear a land grab. land that would force them to leave their ancestral island.
2 mins
With our correspondent in Antananarivo, Sarah Tétaud
In 2022, the State is launching an official public call: it is looking for investors for the construction of a luxury hotel complex in Nosy Mitsio.
“ It made us jump! » confides Mamy Rakotondrainibe, president of the Tany Collective, for the defense of Malagasy lands. “ We had already worked on the Nosy Mitsio case in 2020 where we learned from residents that all land-related procedures – in particular the delivery of land titles and land demarcation operations – were frozen. “.
Information that Hajo Andrianainarivelo, the minister in charge of Regional Planning at the time, confirms to us. A measure, he said, taken to counter the “ obscure requests from business leaders who gravitated around the regime “. “ Behind every Malagasy who asks for papers for land of more than 100 hectares in these tourist areas, know that there is always a foreigner » he affirms.
“ All of this will have environmental consequences. »
“ Such a project is very dangerous for us “, continues the population rights activist. “ Because a 5-star hotel will require that an airfield, a large port be built, as well as roads, and all of this will lead to environmental consequences and, above all, population displacement. In almost all projects in Madagascar, opacity reigns seriously, as if the leaders did not care at all about the population’s rights to information, expression, and consultation. And this is still the case in this project. »
If Joël Randriamandranto, the Minister of Tourism who took over this big file, does not hide his ambition: “ To achieve my goal, I need investors, whether national or international “, he however refutes the associations’ accusations: “ we analyze the investors’ proposals, we look at what is beneficial for the country, win-win for everyone, we do not lock ourselves in. There is the social aspect and environmental conservation that must be taken into account. »
For the minister, we should not speak of opacity, but of discretion, as long as agreements are not concluded. Concerning this hotel project, several investors have already come forward. One seems to be of particular interest to the Malagasy authorities.
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